Legacy
by hulklinging
Summary: Eli comes back, but doesn't come home. A stranger sporting stars and stripes makes him reconsider.
"I know you."

Eli blinks, but doesn't really find the statement an odd one. After all, he's only been back at the library a few months, but he had worked here for years, before. Quite a few of the regulars had already welcomed him back.

When he looks up though, he doesn't recognize the girl standing across the desk from him.

She's got long curly hair, an American flag tank top, and her eyes are more suspicious than he'd like.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I don't recall-"

She interrupts him, which has his shoulders immediately tense.

"You wouldn't," she says, leaning back out of his space, and maybe he imagined how she looked for a moment like she was ready for a fight. "It ended up being someone else, in the end."

He's lost, and he's not sure if the girl is just not thinking linearly or if she's trying to throw him off on purpose. Either way, he doesn't like it.

"Can I help you?" He asks, in a decidedly unhelpful tone.

The girl shrugs, flops down in the chair across from him, and stares at him with eyes that look too old for her.

"Don't think it really counts as helping me, except for how it'll save me from having to listen to your old teammates whine-"

Wait. What?

"-but you should really think about giving them a call, chico. Let them know you're back in town."

"I'm not," he says quickly. "Not like that. Not with them."

Her sigh is oddly judgemental. Who is this girl, who knows his old team and takes up space with a confidence he can't help but envy.

"I'm not asking you to put on the mask again or anything. I'm just saying it would suck if one of them walks through those doors and realizes you haven't even bothered to say hello."

Eli bites his cheek and goes for the second thing to come to mind, because the first is just 'fuck off,' which is not work appropriate.

"If you think I'm going to sit here and let some stranger lecture me, you're delusional. I have work to do." He stands up to leave, and she matches him, blocking her way. He sizes her up and wonders what powers she's hiding behind those stars and stripes and that smirk. Not that the Young Avengers have a power requirement. But there's something extra in her shoulders, her crossed arms, the way she says she knows who he is and so by extension what he can do but there's no hint of caution in her eyes.

"They want to hear from you. They talk about you all the time."

"Why do you care?"

"I don't. But they do." The unspoken 'and I care about them' is in her eyes, and Eli feels off balance, hearing about his old team from someone who's a stranger. He wonders what else he's missed, in their stories. Tries to pretend he doesn't care either.

"They'll get over it."

She laughs at that, and it's not entirely kind. "That lot? They're not the best at letting go. Maybe you remember that."

Stubborn to a fault, every one of them. He remembers. Facing down villains and their own heroes, carving their own path. It was worth it until it wasn't, bodies piling up and nothing any of them could do about it.

"Get out of my way."

She obeys, but he has to bump her shoulder to walk past her. She's a wall, and he wants to know her story in spite of himself. Wants to match his fists against hers, because Teddy wasn't into sparring so much and because he hasn't let himself even practice in ages, because that will make him miss this. And he doesn't. At all. No way.

"At least give Cassie a call. Whatever happened between you and them, she wasn't involved."

This makes him freeze. "Cassie's dead."

"Not anymore."

He turns to her, his anger surging. "You're lying. What's your problem?"

It's her turn to walk away, but not before she passes him a piece of paper with some numbers on it.

"She's back. She also seems to think I'm good at finding people, and told me to tell you to call her. I wasn't intending to try, because I think anyone who leaves their team is an asshole, but then here you were."

He takes the paper, but doesn't let himself look at it.

"See you around, Patriot."

"That's not my name," he says on instinct.

She tosses a "Don't care" over her shoulder, and then she's gone.

He doesn't call. He does stop by their old hideout, which is so stupid, because who knows if they even still use it, and he's too much of a coward to knock anyway. In the end he doesn't need to, though, because Kate catches him pacing outside.

"Eli?"

He stops, turns to stare at her. She looks good. Older, more settled. He wonders if he's changed at all. On some days, he pretends he's grown a little taller, a little stronger, but on other days he feels like he's just as scared as he was the day he walked away.

"Hey, Kate."

They stare at each other for a long time. Finally, Kate jerks her head at the door. "Want to come in? It's movie night. Everyone will be showing up in the next little while."

He wants to ask who 'everyone' is. Wants to fill in some of the holes between then and now. But that's a slow process, a tender one, something to handle with care. This is how it starts, maybe. This is how to stop being afraid.

"Sure," he says at last. "I'd like that."

They go inside, and he lets a new chapter begin.


End file.
